Second Life: A Guide to Your Virtual World (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: sculpted prims, add friend, building block type, Second Life, Ansel Gasparini, Linden Lab (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Live your Second Life to the fullest!

 

• Get started and get comfortable fast

• Understand the culture, and avoid beginner’s mistakes

• Create the right look for your avatar

• Master Second Life’s building and texturing tools

• Learn how to terraform, build, and landscape your first plot

• Create your own Second Life “objects” and clothing

• Attend the best Second Life virtual events

 

Create Your Virtual Life in an Incredible Online World...Right Now! 

Imagine a virtual landscape where everything is created and owned entirely by residents like you. Imagine a place where you can enjoy sunsets, ride a jet ski, buy land, plant a garden, get a tattoo, go sky diving, spend an evening dancing the night away, or relax at home by the fire. Picture a world vividly developed, socially dynamic, and strikingly real where you can bring previously unimaginable things to life with friends from around the globe. This is Second Life®, the hottest Internet phenomenon in years…maybe ever!

 

Now, there’s a totally real, totally independent guide to Second Life. This full-color book is as rich as Second Life itself! It’s packed with insider tips, easy step-by-step techniques, and interviews with dozens of SL residents telling you what they wished they knew when they started! Brian White pulls no punches: You’ll learn exactly what’s great and not so great about SL...how to thrive in its unique culture, and how to create your dreams!

 

The more time you spend in Second Life, the more useful this book will become...teaching you more advanced skills; everything from vehicle construction, Linden Scripting Language, particle systems, to creating custom animations and the new sculpted prims!

 

Visit the companion site in Second Life to find all the textures and objects from this book as well as the contributor’s gallery and other goodies: http://slurl.com/secondlife/humuli/222/123/29

 

Contents

                        Preface  xvi

Chapter 1          Welcome to Second Life  3

Chapter 2          Exploring the New Frontier  27

Chapter 3          Communication and Social Networking  47

Chapter 4          Your Avatar–Your Virtual Self  67

Chapter 5          Second Life Culture and Relationships  93

Chapter 6          Building Basics  119

Chapter 7          Advanced Textures and Clothing  171

Chapter 8          Making the Magic: Scripting Basics  229

Chapter 9          Land Ownership, Terraforming, and Landscaping  253

Chapter 10        Particles, Vehicles, Animations, and Sculpted Prims  283

Chapter 11        Photography, Music, and Movies  333

Chapter 12        Practical Matters: Under the Hood of the Metaverse  347

                        Index  366

 

 

About the Author

In “Real Life (RL)” Brian A. White has more than 15 years of experience in defining, developing, marketing, and selling enterprise software solutions. He has worked for successful startups and companies such as IBM, Microsoft, and Rational Software. He is currently Vice President of Product Management for Opsware Inc. He is familiar both with the technologies driving Second Life as well as the real-life tools that perform similar modeling/texturing jobs, such as LightWave, Poser, Bryce, and Photoshop. He lives with his wife and two sons in Seattle, Washington.

 

In “Second Life (SL), he is Ansel Gasparini, host of Ansel Gasparini on Second Life, (http://anselgasparini.blogspot.com/), organizer of the first Seattle/Pacific Northwest Meetup for Second Life residents, and SL Instructor/Mentor.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Que; 1 edition (August 31, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321501667
• ISBN-13: 978-0321501660
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #244,142 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Saved my Second Life. - How Brian White helped save it. , October 17, 2007

By	Eric Hedman "Hap Underwood" (South Kalifornia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Basically, I did the same thing a lot of other people did in Second Life. I registered, then walked away after not getting the fun of it right away. I came back to it because I needed a new creative and social outlet. Mr. Whites book approaches the problem that the Second Life folks are only now getting a handle on and solves it. By going through the chapters in whatever order, at your own pace, You can get a handle on this experience and use it to help remake your world. First and Second. Now my Second Life is all about making new friends and doing and making things with the tools and talents I can muster.... and talking to people who like dancing....while talking, and making things....
The best game engine is another human being.
Thank you Brian White.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read, high praise for the hands on easy to read tutorials, November 10, 2008

By	Robert Grothe "agorabooks" (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've read many books on Second Life but none come as close to being the perfect book as this one in terms of helping a newbie understand this exciting virtural world, and how to make the most of the environment, the community, and the economy. Each chapter starts with an overview but quickly gets down into practical applications of the chapters topic and then adds a step-by-step tutorial on how to use that feature or principal to get real stuff done inside of Second Life using common building tools already available to most residents. I just wish I had started with this book instead of having it be the last one of many. A must read for anyone wanting to get the most positive experience out of Second Life. And technical enough for even those who have been residents inside of SL for awhile to learn new concepts and how to apply them.

I highly recommend reading this book if you are even the least bit interested in finding out about Second Life and how it works. And for the verteran an overview but also practical steps to making your experience even richer inside Second Life.

If you want only one book to read for Second Life this is your book.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent starting point for Second Lifers, August 8, 2008

By	Edwin E. Klingman "Gene Man" (San Gregorio, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is an excellent first book for those who have signed on to Second Life, fooled around some, and have lots of questions. My advice is put a few hours into Second Life, then read this book. The presentation level was just right for me as an intro. But start by going on Second Life, THEN read the book.